The Mumbai hot list 2011: 20 people to watch

Sure, politicians like to think they're the ones in control of our lives. But we all know life isn't about taxes or bribes or noise pollution laws. Life's about living, and these people are the one's doing it best, making us proud to be really living in Mumbai.

In no particular order:

1. Vijay Nair

A few weeks ago all roads led to NH7 Weekender, a highly successful two-day
indie music festival in Pune organized by talent and event management agency Only
Much Louder
(OML).

The volume went up this month when Vijay Nair, co-founder
and director, OML, Counter Culture Records, Babblefish Productions and
OML
Digital, brought down cult band Prodigy for the first Invasion
Festival.

Music was
a road Nair set off down at 17 and in the eight years since its
inception, OML has
grown into an umbrella company for all things music related, as long as
it’s
not Bollywood.

Considered one of the most important people in the
Indian music scene, Nair won British Council’s International Young
Music Entrepreneur
of the Year Award in 2009. Not bad for a college dropout.

En route he spreads awareness via his GreenCycleGreenEarth blog, “Not to
save Earth, but to save energy and save ourselves. The Earth will save itself,”
he says.

On a leave of absence from his job, his next mission is “to cycle the
length and breadth of India and through 50 countries."

What’s the one thing
that serves him best on these adventures? “It sounds cheesy, but a smile works
well,” Desai says.

3. Kavita Mukhi

A little dabbling on her small farm in Alibaug prompted conscious living promoter Kavita Mukhi, 52,
to start a little farmers' market in Mumbai in March 2010. A banner at the Sunday event in Bandra
thanks the participating
farmers and reads: ‘No bargaining, Organic is priceless.'

Besides offering fresh and healthy fruit and vegetables direct from source, the Farmers' Market is also an entertaining afternoon out with a
café, foot massages, film screenings and children’s workshops. Mukhi hopes to
makes this market a permanent feature in many corners of the city.

“We are planning to give people real
health alternatives and solutions, not just product selling. It will be a
healing place with a café and a place to chill, to find music you will love,
books you will want to read and people you will want to befriend,” she says.

4. Ashvin Gidwani

For 19 years Ashvin Gidwani has pursued his passion for theater. In that
time, the 43-year-old has gone bust thrice and bounced back every time. Today,
he adopts a more pragmatic approach with Ashvin Gidwani Productions.

“Theater
has to be commercial," he feels. "I now dissociate myself emotionally.”

His growth
story is of alliances evidenced by recent successful productions like "The Alchemist," Vir Das's "History of India," "Get Rid of
My Wife" and "It’s a Kind of Magic."

Gidwani recently acquired the rights to Robin Sharma’s bestseller book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" and has at
least three other productions in the pipeline. “We believe in experimentation
and use R&D to create theater and experiences,” says the Mumbai producer/director.

5. Shobhna S Kumar

After
moving to Mumbai from Fiji eight years ago,Shobhna S Kumar realized that queer literature was
not easily available in India and created a solution. To circumvent the discomfort many felt browsing in a
store, Kumar, 43, started Queer Ink.

The store functions from her spare
room and covers all things queer -- books, art, DVDs, CDs, but not erotica. From
the modest 100 indigenous titles available in the Queer Ink catalogue, one
title Kumar recommends is "Same-sex Love
in India" by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai.

“The types of requests I have
received reflect a severe lack of knowledge of queer issues and lives in India,”
says Kumar, who also has two decades of work in the NGO sector under her belt.

6. Siddhartha Banerjee

Siddhartha Banerjee, 36, describes himself as “more architect, less
artist" of brand solutions. Currently working as a digital and convergent media
strategist, spearheading the mobile business at Jack in the Box Worldwide, necessity
propelled Banerjee to design the Meter Down iPhone app.

It was meant to help him and
his wife deal with Mumbai’s challenging commute. “I’m an Apple fanboy. That’s
the reason I launched Meter Down exclusively on the iOS platform. As of
December 12 2010, Meter Down (both taxi and auto) had been downloaded 6,891 times,” he
says.

The reactions of cab and auto drivers to his fare-calculating mobile app
have ranged from surprise to awe. “Some of them are disappointed because they
can’t cheat anymore,” says Banerjee.

7. Gresham Fernandes

Gresham Fernandes is
a classic example of taking the boy out of Bandra but not being able to take
Bandra out of the boy. The 30-year-old executive chef fine dine for Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality masterminds the menus of popular restaurants The Tasting Room,
Salt Water Café and Bespoke Café in Mumbai, besides restaurants in Pune and
Delhi.

But give him a choice and Fernandes will take homemade east Indian food and
his grandmother’s fugyas fried
bread any day. His inspiration, however, comes from the venue and its kitchen
and though experimentation is the buzzword, he admits that many go awry.

When
someone eats one of his creations, the best reaction, he says, “Is their
expression; they don’t have to speak -- their look, that smile, says
everything.”

8. Sonakshi Sinha

A debut with superstar Salman
Khan and being part of what would turn out to be one the biggest hits films of the year ("Dabangg") is more than 22-year-old
fashion designer turned actress Sonakshi Sinha could have hoped for. She’s now
racked up a bunch of coveted projects with A-list heroes.

Daughter of
yesteryear actor Shatrughan Sinha, Sonakshi is well trained in the ways of
Bollywood including gossip writers. “I just ignore what they say; to each to
his own. Besides, it’s their job to write and if they feel that every little
move I make is important enough to write about, then I guess I must be doing
something right,” she says.

The funniest story she’s read about herself? “That
I got a nose job.”

9. Adam Dow

Improviser-trainer Adam Dow, 32, arrived in Mumbai from the USA and set
out to form his own Whose Line Is It Anyway? inspired improv group. He did so
by setting up Improv Comedy Mumbai which conducts workshops and also holds
evenings at Café Brun and is soon be associated with The Hub.

“I want to set up
an ongoing and sustainable improv group,” says Dow who sometimes MCs the shows
but mostly sits in the back row taking notes.

10. Sujal Shah

Sujal Shah, 37, has oddly managed to blend a biology degree with
business work experience to land his current position as vice president and head of fashion for IMG India. As
the man behind Lakme Fashion Week (LFW), his focus is on the business of
fashion, though he admits, “It is nice to have so many pretty girlfriends.”

In this
short tenure, he has created an e-commerce partnership at LFW and brought it
into the digital age. “If I ever leave the fashion industry I hope to have left it
in a better place,” Shah says.

His favorite part about LFW is the Gen Next and emerging
designer’s shows. Keeping his colorful designer-shoe-clad feet
firmly on the ground, he says, “Glamor and parties are perks but I see them as
part of the job. It’s nice to be exposed to all of this but it cannot become
who you are.”

Joseph describes it as her
“revisiting of the Mumbai that I grew up in.”

Joseph read
English at Trinity College, Cambridge, taught English at the Sorbonne and
worked briefly for the Times of India and ELLE India. It then took her just 18
months to write her first novel and is already working on her second novel while studying for her PhD.

Of writing, she says: “People who write do it
because they love it. The rest is merely luck, and maybe doggedness.”

12. Arijit Datta

Wavy haired Airport front-man Arijit Datta, 33, doesn’t see himself doing anything
except making music. From their first gig in December 2009 to recently taking
the stage at the NH7 Weekender music festival in Pune, the band is riding high.

Their composition is the theme tune for
MTV
Roadies, their first music video is out, but fans will have to wait for an
album. Datta,
who started the band with guitarist Vinay Lobo, says, “I believe in
storing and
jamming. Once the songs start to cook I will start to think of an
album.”

The
five-member band also plans to take their music across India and
international.
Though he’s been overwhelmed by the response, Datta is not sure how he
should
react when an audience member says, "Your music is so beautiful. I have
never cried in a concert but I cried when I heard that song."

"What do
you say
to something like that?” he wonders.

13. Deepak Dhar

Reality TV began in India with Popstars,
a talent hunt show for Channel V. That was a one-off, but now reality TV is
Deepak Dhar’s middle name. Dhar is the big boss at Endemol India, producers and
format owners of a host of reality shows such as "Fear Factor," "Deal or No Deal" and "Bigg Boss."

"Bigg Boss," the Indian version of Celebrity Big Brother, is just finishing its fourth season, Khatron Ke Khiladi (a Fear Factor spin off) had two successful seasons and Dhar is currently
shooting a new show, "WipeOut," in Buenos Aries.

If he could choose a show, he’d love
to be a participant on "Fear Factor." But the one lesson reality TV has taught
him is, “To be on my toes all the time
with all the twists and turns that come around.”

Dhar, 37, plans to take
Endemol into the world of fiction soon.

14. Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal

Like
the character from the movie "A Mirror Has
Two Faces" which inspired her food blog to be called A Perfect Bite, Rushina
Munshaw Ghildiyal also needs “to
get all the elements on my plate perfectly balanced in each bite."

The 35-year-old mother of two has tossed aside animation training and extended food blogging into an enterprise. She’s a food consultant, food stylist, budding author and
conducts food tours too. Her recent post on star anise and oranges could well be called food
porn.

Sample this: "The noodles glistened up at me, wet and begging for
a sauce to complete them, but they had a little longer to wait until the plum
juicy chicken joined them."

Says Ghildiyal, “I’ve played on foreplay with food and it’s so
descriptive that by the end you are really ready to go and cook.”

15. Roopak Saluja and Kirk Dias

Roopak Saluja (35) and Kirk Dias (46) are the creative life-force behind
international ad film production company Bang Bang Films, “A thinking and doing
company,” which ranked second on AllWorld Network's Top 25 fastest growing
companies in India in 2010.

Most of this thinking, for clients like Nokia,
Pepsi, Tata and Unilever, has happened across a glass-topped conference table
over a tub of baby sharks. Dias, with 18 years experience in production, and
Saluja with his multi-lingual, multi-cultural diplobrat antecedents, make a
formidable team.

When not working, Dias dabbles in pan-piping while sushi-lover
Saluja spends time with son Zen. In the future, Saluja sees themselves positioned “at the
crossroads of communications, entertainment and technology.”

16. Lisa Haydon

Lisa Haydon first walked the Indian fashion runway in 2007. Three years later, plans of becoming a yoga teacher
cast aside, the 25-year-old model of Australian and Indian descent has been on the cover of fashion magazines like
Harpers Bazaar and Elle.

Last year she made her Bollywood debut in "Aisha" with Sonam Kapoor. And to open 2011 the model-TV host-actor leads a bevvy of models in the highly publicized Kingfisher
swimsuit calendar.

From some angles, mostly thanks to the bee-stung lips,
Lisa bears an uncanny resemblance to Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, whom she
says she is inspired by. Raised in Australia and USA, she’s learning Hindi now and
hoping to speak it without an accent.

She’ll get some practice as the host of a
new MTV reality show "Rock On."

17. Alex
Baine

A member of the NGO UnLtd India,
Alex Baine spearheaded the Bombay HUB into existence, "A collaborative workspace for people
contributing to social change."

Bringing his previous NGO experience from the
UK, Alex now offers like-minded individuals and groups a common workspace for
sharing of ideas and facilitation for fledgling social entrepreneurship
outfits. Baine describes Bombay HUB as “a laboratory of social change."

In a CNNGo
interview Baine said, “It’s about
creating a community of people willing to share their skills to form a better
world.”

Though he's moving from Mumbai in March, Bombay HUB will continue to be active.

18. Ashiesh Shah

“My philosophy would be combining contemporary
and new media art with design,” says 32-year-old interior designer and architect Ashiesh Shah. His five year old firm,
Ashiesh Shah Associates, applies this idea to homes and an eclectic mix of
public spaces, like an upcoming lifestyle store, Le Mill, and a new restaurant
in Bandra.

A collector of art (his home boasts specially commissioned
works by 15 artists from around the world) Shah believes that art should be woven
into the design of a house.

“Art is my design inspiration.
Art makes you look at detail,” he says.

From a family of doctors, he almost became a
dentist but chose to “follow his heart” instead towards the challenges of the limited
spaces offered by Mumbai apartments.

19. Aashish Hiramanek and Meghna Shah

Boutique agency Tandem Communications is better known as Aashish
Hiramanek (38) and Meghna Shah (35) who have been in the business of public relations for
about 14 years, eight of them as partners.

Tandem focuses on art, lifestyle,
fashion, food and décor and on making work fun. And with clients like the Comedy Store, Burberry, Gallery
BMB, Ritu Kumar, Indigo, Royal Western India Turf Club (to name a few) what
else can it be?

But PR is not just parties, clarifies Hiramanek. “We are trying to move to more sales-driven efforts,
where required; innovative ways to create buzz. Our vision is to have a niche
boutique lifestyle agency which is the last word on public relations.”

Shah
says what sets them apart is their hands-on approach. “We are not a ‘one
formula for all clients’ agency. No client is too big or small.”

20. Vikramaditya Motwane

His debut film, "Udaan," was the
first Indian film since 2003 to make the official selection at the Cannes film
festival last year. The critically acclaimed film secured Motwane membership to the
scantily populated club of Indian indie filmmakers and earned him best film and
best director at the Star Screen Awards.

A history major and former assistant
director, 34-year-old writer-director Motwane is currently working on his next
film with UTV producing. "I find it funny
when people tell me they liked my film because it didn’t put them to sleep. And
others ask me what the damn point of it was.”

His future plans are “to keep making as many different
films as I can."

Udita is an entertainment and lifestyle writer and author based in Mumbai.